It is general knowledge in the field of rolling bearings technology that shafts and rotating parts, are mostly mounted at two mounting points configured as a fixed bearing and a movable bearing because, in this way, manufacturing tolerances and length variations caused by thermal expansions between the shaft and a housing or between an axle and the rotating part can be compensated for without additional clamping forces acting on the bearing. The fixed bearing that is fixed in axial direction takes up, in addition to its radial force fraction also all axial forces in both directions, whereas the movable bearing transmits only its radial load fraction because it is not fixed in axial direction and therefore, as a result, cannot take up any axial force. The compensation of manufacturing tolerances and thermal expansions is thus effected exclusively through the movable bearing, more specifically at the two seating point of the inner ring, at the seating point of the outer ring of in the bearing itself.
A generic radial rolling bearing for a typical movable mounting of a radially highly loaded shaft is known, for example, from DE 2 931 348 A1. This movable bearing configured as a radial cylindrical roller bearing is made up substantially of a smooth cylindrical outer ring which is inserted into a housing and of a roller crown ring arranged in this outer ring, this crown ring being formed by a plurality of rolling elements which are inserted into a bearing cage and retained by this uniformly spaced in peripheral direction. The rolling elements configured as cylindrical rollers roll on an outer raceway formed by the inner peripheral surface of the outer ring and on an inner raceway formed by the outer peripheral surface of a smooth cylindrical inner ring which is slipped onto the shaft, which inner raceway is formed in other applications also by the outer peripheral surface of the shaft itself. In addition, for an axial guidance of the roller crown ring, two separate flanged disks are arranged on the axial sides of the outer ring, which flanged disks, together with the outer ring, are fixed in place against an axial displacement, on one side by a snap ring that engages into a circumferential groove in the housing and, on the other side by a fixing element configured as an adjustable tension ring.
Further, another generic radial roller bearing configured as a double row needle roller bearing for a movable mounting of a radially highly loaded rotating part is known from a catalogue of the applicant, October 2008 Edition, page 742, under the designation NAO..-ZW-ASR1. In this needle roller bearing likewise made up substantially of a smooth cylindrical inner ring that is slipped onto an axle, a roller crown ring arranged on the inner ring and a smooth cylindrical outer ring that is inserted into a rotating part, the axial guidance of the roller crown is, however, effected through two separate flanged disks that bear against the axial sides of the inner ring, which flanged disks, together with the inner ring, are fixed in place in axial direction by two fixing elements that are configured as snap rings and engage into circumferential grooves in the axle.
A drawback of both the aforesaid radial roller bearings is, however, that the axial fixing of the outer and the inner ring as also of the adjoining flanged disks in the housing or on the axle is effected through two additional components that, in the case of large bearing piece numbers, are delivered by the bearing manufacturer in separate magazines, in addition to the flanged disks that are likewise already delivered in a loose state. The, as it is high complexity and costs of assembly of such radial roller bearings are thus further increased by the laborious step of removing the fixing elements out of the magazine and through the necessary use of separate assembly tools for these fixing elements, so that such bearings have proved to be extremely uneconomical.